Today was a good day. After seven months of daily work (and a few years of wanting), I rode my Airhead project bike. Here are some pics so you don't get bored reading my drivel:

Started out as an R90/6, that I rode pretty stock for a few years then decided I wanted to make a single-shock go anywhere bike. There is still a lot to do . . .. It doesn't have a stand yet, notice it's leaning against a fence post? I extended my centerstand, but it's a little too long and when I started to cut and re-weld it, my welder started acting up, so it's on hold. Still need to finish the windshield, handguards, the exhaust is too "streety", etc., and there's a fair amount of tidying up to do, but it works for now and I can fix and add from here. Man, it felt so good to ride it, even it was only for an hour or so. I really needed to ride, too, because I was getting a serious case of shop burnout. Anyway, I hope you like it, and if you don't, well, what are ya gonna do?

Joe

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"It's not that I don't like people...I just find I am happier when they're not around"

From the front of the bike, with the windshield covering everything, it doesn't look so foreign. The box holds all of the wiring connections, since there is no large headlight bucket to stuff them all in. On the business side, I wanted the instruments, et al just below my line of sight so I wouldn't have to look down all of the time, that has always bugged me with conventional gauge placement. A GPS will go on the flat panel. Those are just simple LED idiot lights to the right of the speedo/tach unit (charging, turn, beam, OP). Not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but it was function driven, along with my capabilities, what was available, and budget. Honestly, I'm not very impressed with the Vapor tach/speedo. It's small, and they tried to cram too much information into the space available. I only got it because of the tach function and now I'm thinking a digital only tach, versus this digital/bar graph combo might have suited me better. Oh well, nothing that can't be sold off and redone.

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"It's not that I don't like people...I just find I am happier when they're not around"

Seriously..... it looks like you might have a little sight interference going on there?

Nope, it's just right. Seated, I'm looking a good four inches above the top, and I can stand up for anything technical, I gotta see the front wheel type stuff. I'm a tall dude.

Quote:

Originally Posted by onaXR

Those DRZ forks with a BMW wheel? Details please.

Oy, we're talking some work here. I'm kinda stubborn, and really wanted a 19" front wheel, ideally the stock one. There was enough room for the hub and spacer, but not for the stock disc with all of its offset. So, the disc is from a Suzuki GSXR750 (first generation), sourced from Metalgear in Australia. The center hole is 61mm, which fits the hub, and the offset is 21.5mm, thin enough to fit between the fork legs. The bolt hole circumference is different, but since they were both 5-hole, I drilled the new, 80mm pattern midway between the existing holes with a 8.5mm bit. I then had to make a four millimeter thick spacer to go between the disc carrier and the hub (this was necessary due to the caliper I used and would change with other applications). I had a cracked Airhead disc carrier that I cut the mounting flange out of and then turned it down to right thickness. I used one of the steel five-hole disc mounting "washers" on the outside of the disc when I bolted everything up and it covered the extra holes in the disc carrier. Now, fitting the BMW axle in the Suzuki forks. The threads on the axle were smaller diameter than the fork threads, but the axle diameter just inboard of that was larger than the fork ID. So the Suzuki axle that would thread into the fork would be too small a diameter to work with the BMW wheel bearings. I just wasn't up to making a new axle, so I decided to bore the fork leg so the axle would go all the way through, and put a nut on the outside, instead of threading into the fork leg. It's a nice slip fit, but was a tedious job as I hand fitted it with a reamer. The clamped side needed a split tubular shim (.5mm if I recall) between the clamp and axle. A simple spacer for the disc side to get everything centered and it was done. Jeez, it sounds so easy reading it!

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"It's not that I don't like people...I just find I am happier when they're not around"

Me likey. Good job! Did you get the fork spring rates figured out? What did you end up going with?

Thanks! I'm going with 65s after a lot of hemming and hawing. Eventually you have to pull the trigger and see how it works. But hell, this is the fun part, dialing it in! Now if I could just park it without having to look for a tree . . ..

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"It's not that I don't like people...I just find I am happier when they're not around"

Very nice custom. Would really like to see and hear about the swingarm. I can only see enough so far to see much custom work was done there as well. Some kind of brake stay on the left?? Articulations hidden by muffler? Rear axle not centered on hub?? Something special going on there, too.

Very nice custom. Would really like to see and hear about the swingarm. I can only see enough so far to see much custom work was done there as well. Some kind of brake stay on the left?? Articulations hidden by muffler? Rear axle not centered on hub?? Something special going on there, too.

Thank-you. Nothing fancy going on in the back. It's a twin shock swingarm with a mount added for the new shock, the old, left side mount was cut off and ground smooth. Otherwise, it's standard LWB stuff.

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"It's not that I don't like people...I just find I am happier when they're not around"